6 A.M.

I am awake at 6 a.m.

I would just like to share that with you all. I am awake. And therefore hating life.

Fire Drill!

Agh.

Ok, so first of all I just have to say that I have been feeling icky for a few days, so the night before the above-mentioned atrocity I decided to put myself into NyQuil sleep. Which for me is akin to being dead.

So 11 a.m. I am dead asleep on my top bunk. Both Ilana and Trishna are in class (my first one on Wednesday is not until 1:10). Then,

THE FIRE ALARM GOES OFF.

FML. BML. WHATEVER.

I stagger out of bed, put my thougts in order enough to realize that I need real pants (not the tie dye boxer shorts I was wearing) and a sweatshirt (to hide the scandalous Shakespeare t-shirt that shows off my...well everything). Realize, that I also had to manipulate the ladder to get down from my bunk bed. All without dying! It was quite impressive.

Continuing. So the alarm is blaring like..I don't even know how to describe it. All the demons of Hell are screaming bloody murder. that's the sound. And I am half asleep staggering around. No one seems to be in my building. So I go outside, and see what must be half the Waltham police force and Bemco (Brandeis Medical..Co..). And a Waltham firetruck (aka a 15 seater van with FIRE SAFETY tattoed on the side. No lie). Someone tells me to go to Spingold (the theatre), so I stagger in that direction, wincing at the sunlight and the noise and just pissed to be awake ( my alarm was set for noon.).

** The sucky part of this fire drill is that it was jsut Massell Quad and 2/3 of them were in class anyway. So there was not a huge migration of people headed to a certain place that I could follow. I was much more on my own. No idea what to do. Yay for organization.**

So I made it to Spingold. Once inside I found a few of my hallmates, most of whom had also been rudely yanked from sleep. So we good-naturedly abused the administration for awhile, while waiting for the OK from the Very Important People gathered at the building. Someone go tup on stage and started counting us. There were only 35 people in the auditorium. That's like one floor of one building. There are 4 buildings in Massell, each with 4 floors. So there were a lot of people missing. But no way to determine if everyone who shoudl be in the building was in fact safe from the "fire". The guy counting us muttered "Typical Brandeis." My friends and I looke dat each other and were like, "Why are we here again??" Hahahaha. Oh right, because it's amazing. Except that if there actualyy was a fire we might all die.

Oh well.

We walked bakc to Massell, past the important people party outside Renfield (all uniformed and talking improtantly into walkie talkies. VEEERRRYYYY impressive).

Sleep at that point was a lost cause. Trishna had somehow made it back to the room before me, and she and I both established that we needed showers. So a mad dash ensued to get to the showers before they were taken ("Go go go! This is an emergecny drill! Go go go!"). And the guys in our hall now think we are insane thanks to our clad-only-in-towel hallway dashing. Fun times. :)

Miss Me?

Well that's really too bad now isn't it? :P (that's a smiley face with its tongue sticking out)

AAAAnyway, Brandeis is extra super mad wicked fantastic. Fall is descending on the campus. The air is cool, but the sun is warm. It's the kind of weather that makes you think the trees should be on fire with all the colors of autumn..but they are still green. I guess Massachusetts trees are made of stronger stuff than their WV counterparts. This little chill does not change their colors just yet.

I have been busy busy busy which is why I have been epically failing at posting regularly on this thing. My life for the past week or so has been taken up with homework, friends, set-building (I'll elaborate in a sec), and adventuring into Boston. Harvard Square to be exact. Yes, I went inside the Harvard gates and pretended I was a student there. Was tempted to get a t-shirt, but came to my senses. I LOVE BRANDEIS! haha, my loyalty remains strong. Damn Harvard elitists. :P

So set building. Brandeis does this wicked cool thing called the 24 Hour Musical. It's basically what it sounds like. Within 24 hours, a musical is cast, choreographed, learned, teched, and performed. It's crazy itnense and apparently the end result is typically HILARIOUS because no one knows what the F they are doing. Seeing as I do nto sing, I didn't audition. However my friend Emily was going to go paint sets so I decided to go with her. Super fun :) I went to bed around 2 covered in paint and sawdust (and whatever was in the paint filter...shudder...smelled like low tide. I didn't ask. Freshman got all the shit jobs.) the coolest part was that the theatre housing the show has a GRID! For all you non-tech theatre people, this means that there is space above the stage to hang set pieces for the purpose of flying them in and out during a performance. I got to go up on the grid and help tie things and untie things and let's be realistic I had no idea what I was doing but it was SO cool! So I am going to go see the show tonight. should be a great time.

(Side note, the Jake thing fizzled out. No worries. I wasn't that into it anyway.)

Getting slightly corny...I absolutely love Brandeis. Seriously, never have I felt such a deeply personal and all-encompassing connection to a place. The people, the academics, the location...everything. I don't even know how to describe it. Everyhting is perfect. Almost nothing makes me unhappy..I said almost because I am sure some smart-ass friend of mine will try to prove that wrong. But don't try. Because this is one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me. I will try to describe it...jsut...little things that are amazing.

Everyone holds the door for each other. Like, even if I am like 20 feet away from the building, the complete stranger in front of me will remain at the door until I am close enough to grab it. Everyone does this. Myself included of course.

People are so approachable. I was completely and totally lost on my way to a class the other day, and without even hesitating I asked the upperclassman in front of me how to get where I needed to go. No one has to be afraid of beign ridiculed for being a freshman, or for being different or for...well...anything.

My War and Possibilities of Peace class is one of those things almsot unique to Brandeis. The professor told us that almost all universities offer courses in war. Less than 4% offer courses in peace. Of course Brandeis would. How could they not? They are my dream school.

I guess my point is simply that Brandeis is absolutely the most perfect place in the world for me right now. And I am so thankful I was able to come.

You Know You're at a Dork School When...

1. The girl walking in front of you has the Pi symbol tattoed on the back of her neck
2. You mention Shakespeare and no one rolls their eyes and says "Shut up Hillary"
3. A happening conversation includes a debate over study habits
4. You stay up until 2 in the morning STUDYING. really. no party involved.
5. Everyone will freely admit that they love their classes and professors.

Those are just a few. But I am tired. Because, as point 4 says, I was up rather late last night. I guess I started out studying in the lounge area, then Trishna came in, then a whole bunch of other people showded up and our study party became a talk/massage/giggle party. It was fun :) And I did ultimately get my reading done. Yay!

Ah, for those of you who noticed my changed relationship status on Facebook and don't know the story, I will briefly enumerate the events. I met Jake, Jake and I hooked up, Jake and I are sort of dating. (hooked up=kissing. Calm down everyone.) So that's that.

Classes are fantastic. My final scedule looks like this:
Monday- 9-10am Cardio Workout
1:10-2 Biology of Deafness/American Sign Language
3:40-5 Haunted America
5:10-6 Iranian Revolution
Tuesday- 3:10-4:30 War and Possibilities of Peace
Wednesday- 1:10-2 Biology of Deafness
3:40-5 Hanuted America
5:10-6 Iranian Revolution
Thursday-9-10 Cardio Workout
1:10-2 Biology of Deafness
Friday-3:10-4:30 War and Possibilities of Peace

Sooo...that's about it. I love it here :) Talk more later!!!

BML!!

Haha, ok so for those of you not up on text slang, FML is a commonly used expression to denote frustration. It stands for fuck my life. WELL we at Brandeis were treated to a rather pointless lecture yesterday about our options for academic advisement. The title of it was BML. Which stands for BRANDEIS my life. HAHAHAHAHA!! So that has become a joke. As has double fisting. Erm. Not going into that.

So in the time since last I wrote, Brandeis has become pretty amazing. We had our Committment to Social Justice orientation thing two days ago, and it was so neat. How many universities dedicate an entire day of orientation to exposing freshmen to different kinds of hate and how to combat them? This is truly an incredible place. Academics and changing the world are the top priorities. How wicked awesome is that? And how perfectly ME? Oh wow.

And I have been making friends. As I mentioned before, the people in my orientation group are pretty awesome. These girls, Emily and Hayley and I have vowed to be friends even after the orientation activities have ended. Which they officailly have. But I have both of their numbers and we live on the same quad, so it should be fairly easy to find them. Hopefully. We have done almost all of the orientation stuff together, and we get along really well. So, that's that.

I just had my first class. Cardio workout. Yay. Haha I had actually considered dropping it, but then I walked in and the teacher/coach was SUPER cute. Haha, so I think I will stick with it. It will be healthy and, well, visually appealing :)It's my earliest class, starting at 9:00. Ick. And because it is a workout class, I will actually need to get up and eat breakfast beforehand. Grrrreat. OH!

We got our refrigerator and microwave yesterday! We bought them from a girl who currently lives in the East Quad (sophomore housing). She is leaving Brandeis, and wanted to be rid of them. So, we trekked all the way to East (REALLY FREAKING FAR, and we encompasses myself, Trishna, and Ilana-the roomies) to look at the stuff, decide we wanted it, and also decide that there was no way in the world that we could carry it all the way from East back to Massell (our quad). Too heavy, too uphill, and too hot. So we told Anna (the girl selling to us) that we would talk to our CA (Community Advisor, remember?) about a way to get it to our building. Trekked back to Massell, and were almost to our room, when we happened to pass one of the rooms on our floor that happened to be filled to the brim with boys. *Zing!* Idea! So we challenged their collective masculinity and then asked them to help us carry a fridge and a microwave for us. Haha many of them did not know how far exactly East was from Massell. SO, we walked from Massell to East AGAIN, showed Anna our group of strapping young lads, and left again. Yet ANOTHER walk from East to Massell, this time accompanied by the guys carrying our appliances. Several huge hills and lots of funny looks ("Why are you carrying a fridge?" "Because I CAN! WHAT NOW?!") later, we got back to Renfield (our building) and set up our appliances successfully! Haha our fridge has a yarmulke. And I want to name it Leonard Bernstein, but I have not proposed it yet.

***So, I have been trying to write this over the course of like 5 hours. Every time I sit down and start typing, someone comes in and wants to go to breakfast, or lunch, or just hang out. So, if it's choppy I apologize. ***

Anyway, the rest of orientation was fun. If you want gory details, text me. If you've been looking at my Facebook statuses and wondering what is going on, also text. It's quite a story.

So, classes started. After Cardio Workout with the cute instructor, I had a break then on to Hebrew. Why did I sign up for that? Everyone in there has been through Hebrew school. And I have not. Hillary=Not Jewish Enough for Brandeis Hebrew Class. And I realized that the language is really only useful in Israel of Hebrew. And neither of those are places where I spend a lot of time. So, I kind of want to drop it. But my only other option os German. Which, again, isonly useful in Germany and I guess other parts of Europe. But Trishna is in the class too, so we could practice together. We'll see. The prohibitor is the cost of the books. I already bought Hebrew books. Meh. Hate Hebrew.

Now I am chilling in the room across the hall from mine with Trishna and Bo Reum (our Korean neighbor). We are listening to music, book shopping, and discussing hall drama (bleh). It's fun :) Talk to you guys later.

PS, if you are reading, comment! Let me know I am not writing this for my health! I am SUCH an actor. I want my audience please.

Umm...

Ok. So I am not yet ready to declare Brandeis a specatcular fail or success. It certainly has its good points. I guess that is what I will first focus on. Umm...good things. Ok.
1. Very diverse campus life. There are people here from all over the world, and it shows in their names, their faces, and their personalities.
2. Everyone is nice. Well, that false orientation nice. Kind of pretentious actually...Only good things! Ok.
3. My roommates are fantastic. We all really get along pretty well. All of them like Harry Potter and the Beatles, so what more do we really need? We spent last night talking for hours getting all the deep personal stuff out of the way. It was good.
4. One of the buildings is aqua. Not sure if that qualifies as good or bad...its neat.
5. Everyone seems to be very intent on being themselves.
6. The one theatre I have seen is nice.

I know there are more things, I just can't think of them right now because I of course am homesick. I had exceptionally amazing friends at home, and everyone here seems to have come with friends...I miss mine...

The bad things are foremost in my mind right now.
1. The Orientation process is very disorganized. Half the time I have no idea what I am supposed to be gaining from the hoops they have us jumping through.
2. The food in Sherman dining hall sucks. Hard core. Half is kosher and half is not which is apparently unique to Brandeis. Just the fact that kosher and nonkosher people can eat side by side without a huge fear of contamination. It drops the segregation which is nice.
3. My OL (Orientation Leader) keeps ditching my group. This is not so bad, as my group is really cohesive and we always find each other.
4. People are mildly pretentious, which I guess I already mentioned.
5. It's hard to make friends. As true as it is that everyone is new, its also a fact that during the first few weeks everyone stays tight with their preexisting friends. Which sucks for me.
6. No AC in the dorm rooms. I was up all night because it was just too hot to sleep. It was really uncomfortable.

I am going to purposely stop while the two are even. I will do my best to positively enumerate the events of the past few days.

Sunday was...hot as hell. Not kidding. Sunday was the day I moved in. Said goodbye to mom, got set up in the dorm, learned exactly how overwhelming the Brandeis campus is, and a ton of other things. My CA (Community Advisor. Not RA, Res Advisor, because at Brandeis we are all COMMUNITY) seems cool. She is very straightforward. Her words at our hall meeting "Don't fuck with me, or I will fuck you right back." That i can work with. She seems nice enough, just not someone who is willing to take shit from anyone. Which I respect immensely. (PS, everyone on campus uses foul language. Everyone.)

Umm...my adventures today were rather boring. I met my OL group for breakfast at Sherman at some ungodly hour of the morning. It was 8. UUUGHH. I don't remember any of what was said at breakfast, which is ok because apparently no one else did either. We did orientation activities all day which ranged from learning about the values of Brandeis to getting our class photo taken (800 hot and sweaty freshmen. yummy.). Oh, I met another theatre person at the ice cream social. She seems pretty cool. We have exchanged numbers, and are meeting up again later tonight to watch the Brandeis screening of the Dead Poet Society. A movie I love. I just got back from a concert...some local band that was just waaaay too loud for my taste. So I am here in my room...ritter ronery...

Two Weeks...

Not as in the All that Remains song. As in, I have less than two weeks left before I board a plane for Boston, Massachusetts and the next chapter of my life.

My classes are as follows: Iranian Revolution, Cardio Workout, Haunted America (a seminar based around Langston Hughes' poem 'A Dream Deferred'), and Beginning Hebrew. Once I get to school, I plan to look into a course titled Criminal Law. It requires permission to be enrolled, so thats why I have to wait. It looks pretty neat.

All this talk of classes is to cover up that I am completely and totally freaked out about the coming change. I do not feel ready...does anyone ever? It's not that I am particularly attached to here, its just that I don't know anything else. That's a lie. I've been to Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, and New Zealand. The last thing I should fear is the unknown. But nevertheless, I am afraid. Of what I can't really define even in my brain. But I am more afraid that excited at this point. Hopefully that will all change.

I mailed my first box off to Boston yesterday...I will follow straight.